Saskatoon man who alleged excessive force by police files human rights complaint
"It's just this feeling I can't get rid of. I don't know if I'll ever get rid of it."
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William Favel says he still gets a feeling, a tingle, whenever he sees police.
The first thing he thinks is that they’re coming to get him, because all of his past experiences with city police have been negative, he said.
“They wonder why people run or get scared of them.”
He filed a complaint to the Public Complaints Commission soon after an April 2, 2021 stop by Saskatoon city police on 20th Street West, during which he alleged officers used excessive force to handcuff him and issue a jaywalking ticket, which he paid. The PCC investigation is ongoing.
Since then, he has filed a complaint with the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission (SHRC) about the arrest, alleging police discriminated against him on the basis of race and colour. The complaint went to mediation, but has not been settled.
“I just want something to be done. I don’t believe it’s right what they did. My children believe it wasn’t right what they did,” Favel said.
Saskatoon police deferred comment to the city’s board of police commissioners, which confirmed a complaint is proceeding through Human Rights Commission processes, but declined to comment “out of respect for that process.”
In a June 6 letter from its lawyer to Favel addressing the mediation, the police board said it understands his experience left him “feeling wronged” by police.
“However, as none of the Board was present for these interactions, the Board is faced with conflicting recounts as to what transpired in your interactions with members of the police service. … From the available information the Board is not able to determine with any degree of certainty what truly happened on those days.”
The board oversees police governance, but not day-to-day operations, and has no legal responsibility or liability for the officers’ conduct, and no authority to make changes requested during mediation, the letter noted.
The Human Rights Commission said it can’t comment on individual complaints.
After a complaint is filed and a response is received, the next step is mediation. If a settlement is not reached within 90 days, it goes to the investigation process, but it can go back to mediation at any time.
Favel’s complaint, filed Nov. 5, said a police vehicle passed him three times in a short period while he was walking down the street and stopped in front of him on April 2, 2021. It says when Favel tried to cross the street in the other direction, officers followed him and one ran toward him saying he was jaywalking.
The complaint said the officers grabbed him, pushed him to the ground and handcuffed him, which injured him. It said he was searched and when nothing was found, was given the jaywalking ticket. Police also stopped him in the weeks prior to the incident and found no infraction, according to the complaint.
Favel received an emailed copy of the board’s response, dated March 4, 2022. The document, which the StarPhoenix viewed, had many redactions and the first page was missing. Favel later provided the StarPhoenix an email from the SHRC that the page may have been largely redacted (to preserve privacy) and therefore not included.
It said two officers in an unmarked vehicle noticed Favel because he was wearing a green hoodie and red vest, which are “Hustle Crew” gang colours. Officers believed he recognized they were police and abruptly turned to walk along nearby rail tracks.
It said police tried to stop him before he walked across 20th Street West, and an officer got out of the vehicle and told him to stop, but he kept walking. The officer grabbed Favel’s arm and told him he was under arrest for obstructing a police officer, but Favel tried to resist being handcuffed, the document states.
It alleges that as police led Favel to the vehicle after he was handcuffed, he twisted his body and stepped in a way that led them to think he would try to flee, so an officer did a “leg sweep,” taking his legs out from under him.
Favel “fell to the grassy area of the sidewalk,” and was eventually issued the jaywalking ticket but was not charged with obstruction, it adds.
On a single day in January 2021, Favel was briefly detained because he matched the description of a suspect in an attempted vehicle theft, but was released without charge after police obtained video of the theft, the document states. Later, he was ticketed for spitting because an officer was concerned that spitting in the vicinity of Parkridge Centre “may have elevated risk” of COVID-19, especially among immunocompromised people at the home.
Favel said he has overcome past troubles which led to incarceration, and is now working and caring for his older son, who has special needs.
Seated at his kitchen table with the documents in front of him, his eyes welled with tears as he described the emotional shield he wears for his children. When he’s alone, it still hurts, he said.
“The police don’t see this side. They see the side of ‘Oh, he’s working, he’s doing good.’ I work, I go to the gym every day, try to be healthy, support my boys, my grandson. Put that big smile on for them. Everything’s all right. And inside it’s not,” he said.
“It’s just this feeling I can’t get rid of. I don’t know if I’ll ever get rid of it.”
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